Liverpool have announced the signing of Freddie Woodman from Preston North End. The goalkeeper joins the club as a free agent and looks primed to be the third-choice between the sticks at Anfield behind Alisson and Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Arne Slot’s side have splashed the cash since their Premier League title-winning campaign ended last month, signing Jeremie Frimpong to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back and breaking the bank to acquire the services of Florian Wirtz, also from Bayer Leverkusen. Left-back Milos Kerkez this week arrived from Bournemouth for £40m.
Further marquee additions appear to be in the pipeline as well, with the Reds hoping to revamp their frontline with the signing of a new striker to replace Darwin Nunez, who has been heavily linked with a move to Napoli.
In the meantime, Liverpool have swooped to strike a quick-fire deal for Woodman to solve one of their growing problems. The 28-year-old is set to join the Merseyside club upon the expiry of his current contract with Preston at the start of July next week, having enjoyed spells with Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Swansea City previously.
Woodman made 37 appearances in the Championship last season, keeping 12 clean sheets as Preston avoided relegation by a mere point. The former England Under-21 international will step in as third-choice at Anfield, with Vitezslav Jaros and Harvey Davies both set to leave the club on loan to Ajax and Crawley Town.
The goalkeeper also qualifies as a homegrown player after he came through the ranks at Newcastle and spent three years playing for the club between 15 and 21.
Liverpool have lost a number of homegrown players already this summer and therefore replenishing that key group will have been important for Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes to meet the Premier League’s regulations. They can only name 17 non-homegrown players in their squad.
After academy graduate Alexander-Arnold left for Real Madrid, Caoimhin Kelleher was granted his exit wish and joined Brentford, with Nat Phillips also set to join West Brom.
Jarrell Quansah is expected to leave Liverpool this summer too, with an agreement in place for the young Englishman to join Leverkusen. The defender will head to the Bundesliga in the hope of accelerating his development, and the Reds are said to have inserted a buy-back clause into the deal to ensure that they can bring him back to Anfield further down the line.
England international Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace has been mooted as his potential replacement.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk